ROCKFORD — Two more local health systems will expand and improve cancer treatment services for patients in the coming year.

Rockford Health System started renovations at its North Rockton Avenue campus to make room for a new TrueBeam linear accelerator, which delivers radiation therapy. The improved technology will offer faster, more precise treatment, cancer center manager Jacqui Kudzma said.

Patients also have the choice of visiting new cancer centers built by SwedishAmerican and Beloit health systems within the last year.

For OSF and RHS, it was time to update equipment and facilities for cancer treatment because the technology advances so rapidly. Patient volume has increased in part because people are being diagnosed earlier, and they’re living longer, meaning they might face cancer more than once during their lifetimes.

While the health systems are competitive by nature, they say the different programs ultimately offer patients more choice in fighting a common enemy: cancer.

“Our view is that we have three great hospitals in this town, and when it comes to this part of health care, it’s about making sure patients have the best care at all three hospitals,” Kudzma said.

RHS has had a cancer program for more than 30 years, but it’s a “smaller, family-sized cancer center,” Kudzma said. The health system recently welcomed two more oncologists to its staff.

Workers are building a new space for the linear accelerator, the same technology available at the other Rockford hospitals. The space is often called a “vault” because the walls are made of thick concrete because of the radiation.

The existing linear accelerator will be decommissioned once the new one is built, and the old space will be used for different equipment, Kudzma said. The project is estimated to cost about $7 million.

RHS sees about 650 patients a year for cancer care, Kudzma said, while the other hospitals see a higher volume.

“There are different options, and people make a choice,” she said. “There’s bigger versus small and intimate. I think that’s fabulous for people.”

OSF plans to expand its Center for Cancer Care and renovate the existing space. Dr. Richard Nora, medical director for oncology services, said officials have been working with the same basic infrastructure at the center since 1994.

Page 2 of 2 - Since 2000, Nora said the center has tripled its number of newly diagnosed cancer patients and increased by 50 percent the number of chemotherapy infusion services during the last five years.

Part of the $8.5 million expansion will make more room for infusion services and exam rooms. Officials also are adding more space for pharmacy and a wig boutique.

The 15,000-square-foot, two-story expansion will double the space available to staff and patients.

“Thematically, we were trying to rethink how to (provide services),” Nora said. “We don’t want to just become larger, we want to do business better. ... One of the hardest things is to try to figure out how to make it a better patient experience. Everything is changing so rapidly, so we also made it flexible enough because we don’t know what cancer therapy will look like in five years.”

Staff members visited other cancer centers to try to apply best practices to their project. They also consulted with patient focus groups about what to do.

OSF sees more than 800 new cancer diagnoses a year, Nora said. About 600 to 700 patients receive chemotherapy, and the total number of “encounters” — blood draws, injections, infusions, etc. — related to cancer care is about 40,000 each year.

Nora said the most common cancers treated there are colon, prostate, breast and lung. The center is seeing more lymphoma and blood disorders.

Both SwedishAmerican and Beloit health systems partnered with University of Wisconsin Health in Madison, Wisconsin, to open new cancer centers within the last year.

The SwedishAmerican Regional Cancer Center opened in October near East Riverside Boulevard and Interstate 90. The $39 million, 63,000-square-foot project consolidated and expanded cancer services under one roof.

The $11.6 million Beloit Cancer Center opened in January on five acres of land and also consolidated and expanded services at one location.